Omar Kelly: How did GM Chris Grier survive Dolphins’ latest purge?

There are a couple of things Steve Ross has never done during his decade-plus run of being the Miami Dolphins’ owner.

Along with never hiring a veteran head coach, Ross has never started fresh by hiring a new general manager in the same offseason he’s replacing his head coach.

At this point, considering we’re now on our seventh major football hire during Ross’ tenure as the majority owner, it seems as if that’s the one thing he’s gone out of his way to avoid, even though this seemed like the perfect time to follow the New York Giants, Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings’ lead.

Resetting the Dolphins seems like right approach, especially since the franchise fell short of expectations and is no better off than when this three-year rebuild started.

So why not remove general manager Chris Grier at the same time they fired Brian Flores as the head coach earlier this week?

They came into power together. Yet here we are, saying goodbye to Flores and putting the franchise’s future in Grier’s hands — again.

Why does Ross keep allowing Grier to escape accountability? It’s because he’s “non-threatening,” according to a league source, who has worked with both.

Grier is accommodating and humble to a fault, and definitely a collaborator who works well with others. That’s why it was easy for Ross to identity Flores as the problem in the latest shakeup.

Those are all great traits you want when searching for a friend, or a play date for your child. But they don’t necessarily correlate to leadership — and that’s what this organization has been lacking for decades.

“We had an old, aging roster before that was leading us nowhere but to mediocrity and I think that if you look at our roster today,” Ross said Monday explaining why Grier remains safe and begins his 23rd year in the Dolphins front office.

“You see our salary cap [space] and the players we have?” Ross said, referring to the team’s league-leading $74 million in spending power. “I think we are well suited for the future.”

A future a man who has failed time and time again will continue to create.

According to his own words, Grier said his top priority when this latest rebuild started was to the build the Dolphins through the trenches.

While the defensive front seems fortified because of the emergence of Emmanuel Ogbah, who is a free agent this offseason, the development of Christian Wilkins and Raekwon Davis, and the promise of Jaelan Phillips, the offensive line remains terrible.

And that’s with the selection of five offensive linemen taken in the early rounds of the 2019, 2020 and 2021 NFL drafts.

This unit will likely require a massive overhaul — again — because Robert Hunt is the only player who has proven he’s capable of playing at a relatively high level.

Grier tried and failed to fix Miami’s run game, which has produced below the NFL average for rushing yards for three straight seasons.

Free agent after free agent, trade after trade, draft pick after draft pick, it has become abundantly clear Grier has little respect for a tailback’s value because of the plethora of decisions he’s made.

And then there’s quarterback. No general manager should get to pick three quarterbacks for one franchise unless some kind of serious injury or abrupt retirement enters the equation. Grier swung and missed on Josh Rosen, wasting valuable resources in that 2019 trade for the former NFL starter, who failed in Miami and is now on his fifth NFL team in five years.

The jury is still out on Tua Tagovailoa, who owns a 13-8 record as an NFL starter the past two years. But Tagovailoa’s limited arm strength has contributed to the Dolphins’ wondering eye, as Miami’s decision-makers privately and publicly covet other NFL quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson, Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson.

Even Ross acknowledged Tagovailoa’s future in Miami depends on how the next coach feels about him.

Then we’ve got the free-agent spending spree of 2020, deals which mostly got undone in the offseason of 2021 when Miami cut Kyle Van Noy, traded away Shaq Lawson and Eric Flowers, and let Ted Karras and many others leave in free agency.

And last offseason’s lackluster moves in the offseason — signing receiver Will Fuller, quarterback Jacoby Brissett, tailback Malcolm Brown, cornerback Justin Coleman and Jason McCourty, and punter Michael Palardy and trading for linebacker Benardrick McKinney, who was then cut before the season began — fail to generate excitement for this offseason’s shopping spree.

All those moves had very little impact on the 2021 team’s performance. In fact, many of them were more of a hindrance than beneficial.

While everything was supposedly done in a collaborative manner, meaning the coach and general manager came to a consensus on the decisions made, it’s clear that Grier’s passive demeanor allowed Flores to take a heavy-handed approach.

That’s a problem because Grier is responsible for the talent selection. The coach is responsible for coaching and player development.

I wouldn’t expect Grier to step on the field and call plays, so why is it acceptable for the coach to strong-arm his way into making decisions about the roster?

That means something is either wrong with the process, or the person who’s supposed to be running the show isn’t capable.

Either way, at this point Ross is running out of excuses for Grier. So why is he still the Dolphins GM, again?

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3I1LAJ2